I supported the Brady amendment by co sponsoring it on the Order paper. I apologise to readers for a rare mistake of a bad forecast in thinking the Speaker would accept it for debate and decision as a majority of the House clearly supported it.
The important thing is that nonetheless the amendment served its purpose. It did result in the Speaker warning the government they needed to change and to allow debates and votes in government time on the controls, just as we had argued. He had legal advice against taking the amendment which I do not question. The government agreed to come to Parliament over these powers. As an early demonstration of good faith, there will be a proper debate on 2 Statutory Instruments imposing controls, with a vote on each next week.
Many of the Statutory Instruments which have imposed the restrictions on our freedom of movement were not debated or voted on in the past but will now need to be to comply with the Speakerâs ruling. Many of them were not put into effect by the government under powers in the Coronavirus Act but under other emergency powers  legislation, so trying to vote down the Coronavirus Act would not have dealt with the issues many people are raising. The Coronavirus Act is the source of authority to assist public bodies manage the crisis, which I and others did not wish to stop all the time the restrictions are in place. We want to get at the freedom removing SIs which are mainly issued under the 1984 Public Health (Control of Disease) Act. That will become clearer next week.
October 2, 2020
False positives and the never-ending epidemic
By
Diana Kimpton October 2, 2020
“TESTING is at the heart of the governmentâs response to Covid-19, but the current test for the virus is not 100 per cent reliable.”
Conservative Woman Website
October 2, 2020
My local general hospital had only one COVID death over the past three months. It had three on Monday. It’s still here – and probably getting worse.
October 2, 2020
Not enough data there to draw any conclusions.
Can you see somewhere the number of deaths per hospital? Could you post a link please.
October 2, 2020
Mike Wilson,
You can at least by Trust on the NHS page
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/
I suggested some Trusts of concern a few days back.
October 2, 2020
Sea Warrior,
I think you are correct. There is a definite uptick in with Covid deaths in several Health Trusts. Each one of these should have been profiled, from pre-infection through to death. This should be giving local information on interventions, and adding to (inter)national learning. It is also a test of the underlying spread; is this a local drop in performance or a local increase in virus?
At the other end SirPVaccine is also correct. The contextual background which leads to larger scale interventions is very muddy and perhaps even at a level where the effectiveness of an intervention is not really clear after the fact. There are many problems with the false positive and asymptomatic issue e.g.
(i) a change in P(+/ui) leading to change in P(+) is indistinguishable from a change in P(i), and there are reasons a drift in P(+/ui) can occur
(ii) asymptomatics may actually be genuine false positives (cross-contamination or recovered case shedding unviable viral RNA), an infected but not infectious case or, a genuine infectious asymptomatic.
The Govt is giving no indication of ongoing quality assessment of P(+/ui). The public data is not reporting whether cases were (a)symptomatic at diagnosis. There is no public indication of attempts at viral culturing from asymptotmatics to give an indication of the percentage of these that are infectious.
October 2, 2020
Hopefully the chance will be taken to look carefully at least at the reported large number of asymptomatics at the reported Northumbria University outbreak.
October 2, 2020
With or of??
October 2, 2020
Everhopeful,
With or from the virus.
The govt has allowed a gross distortion of figures. This a fact we can all agree upon. Why? Only those who died from it should be counted.
Otherwise it is pointless guess work and no strategy could be based on it. Hancock was a complete dick again this week with his false scare mongering on predictive deaths. Absolute fantastical rubbish. He is the govt lead FFS!
I have never known doctors certify cause of death in such a hap hazard, unreliable and disgraceful way. Again, why?
October 2, 2020
I suppose based on Hancock anyone who had flu in their lifetime must have died from it!
Anyone who had measles in their lifetime must have died from it! Etc etc.
The govt. under Handcock has spent millions on disease controlled hospitals called Nightingale and not used the for the purpose of isolating a highly contagious pathogen but continues to use hospitals where everyone attends some in the most vulnerable conditions!
A bit like his stupidity of releasing old people from hospital to care homes where 40% of all Covid deaths occurred! Any other industry this would be corporate manslaughter!
40% of all those tested positive are asymptomatic. Lock up the healthy is govt policy! Health Act was designed to lock up the sick!
October 2, 2020
Look, if we close everything down again after October and don’t work out a way through this, isolating the vulnerable or even just looking after the most at risk and asking them to lockdown and support them we will be stuffed. If grandparents can’t see their grandchildren because they’re living their lives then that is their choice, their risk if they carry on.
The government hands out are virtually over for employees now, we cannot expect the government to keep giving money out hand over fist for our children to repay down the line.
October 2, 2020
1700 people die every day in Britain.
October 2, 2020
if true that is worrying – it has been approx 1400 for several years.
October 2, 2020
1700 people die every day in Britain.
….
ssshhhhhh
October 2, 2020
Bodies all over the place. Crosses on doors.
So bad the Government needs to issue fines to keep people indoors.
October 2, 2020
John complains about Statutory Instruments – the UK equivalent of European Union Directives.
They are a convention in most legislatures. It would be impossible to schedule debates every time that a legal limit to a newly-discovered food contaminant were proposed, say.
The UK Parliament is sovereign. That means that it can afford any scope that it wants to Ministers to Make Rules – however, the European Union’s can never go beyond the strict limits imposed by the Lisbon Treaty on the other hand.
The UK has no Constitution where such equivalent limits are imposed on its Parliament.
We therefore have an elected dictatorship, and there is no reason in principle why that might not be a tyranny.
With a Tory majority of eighty, and their having expelled all with the principle and insight to dissent, the UK probably has the Rubber-Stampingest Parliament in the democratic world.
Oh, the irony.
October 2, 2020
It isn’t tryany nor is it a dictatorship, don’t be silly.
We have regular elections.
Just wait for the next one.
Where you for 3 terms when Blair and Brown were in power?
October 2, 2020
There are many criticism of Johnsonâs âmoonshotâ but false positives should not be one of them. If everyone could be tested daily with saliva test for a viral protein with say 1% false positive, 50% false negative (!) then one does not ask contacts to isolate, people only isolate on the days they have a positive test, this stops the accumulation problem. At the ongoing cost to the economy of say 600,000 false positives each day the number of infectious is halved, hence dramatically reducing R.
One large criticism is that this should be part of a designed periodic and stratified testing strategy. Where false negatives have much more importance (e.g. hospitals, care homes and visitors to these) then gold-standard tests should be concentrated. Where the aim is to keep the lid on the virus then quick and cheap tests with lower sensitivity and specificity can be used. This has been known for months, maybe even at the beginning of the epidemic, but the only evidence we see is the U.K. rejecting such lower grade tests (delaying to have the best in the world). This is what would be expected of a ‘science’ view (how good can the measurement be) compared with an economic/business/operational/engineering view. Ideally this would have been done alongside relatively constant behaviour patterns and the constant messaging of hygiene and spacing, the cheap tests then add to the pattern of behaviour.
October 2, 2020
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: In a free country dinner parties are for the many, not the few
“Are you sitting comfortably? Then Iâll begin. You may like to pour yourself a stiff drink. This is going to come as a shock.
For the first time in my life, I have some sympathy for Jeremy Corbyn.”
Daily Mail
October 2, 2020
how many different households did the dinner party come from?
An ideal meeting to spread the virus.
October 2, 2020
Oh yes!
I forgot Mr Corbyn.
He obviously knows the true risk like Borisâ Dad, Cummings, Ferguson.
So he too carries on as normal…as did his guests.
AND a couple of SNPs inc. Senior Health Adviser!!
Either all uber brave/reckless ( we are now told murderous) or just IN THE KNOW!
October 2, 2020
You do realise, that the Act, under which these arbitrary edicts are issued – exactly as that Act intended and foresaw – was drafted by your and Littlejohn’s beloved Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1984, I take it?
More reasonable countries devolve such powers to regional assemblies, to councils etc., and they have generally been more effective at tackling this virus than the centralised government has in England.
But no, the Tories abolished the GLC and such bodies around the country, and hobbled such local democracy as was left by their crushing laws on rates, tendering, etc.
And, of course, as ever with bullies, they shrieked the loudest about the trivial loss of their power – “centralisation!!!” – stemming from progress in European matters.
Irony is truly lost on such types.
October 2, 2020
It isn’t ironic.
There is more power devolved to the other parts of the UK than any other similar set of nations.
Subsidised hugely by the power and wealth of England who have no such seperate Parliament for themselves.
The GLC was a disaster of loony left politics.
Even the current mess is better.
October 2, 2020
The 1984 act was updated in 2009.
All these acts had strict check and balances.
For example, somebody could only be quarantined if they we actually and it had to be signed off by a magistrate.
All of the check and balances been stripped away by the current Government.
October 2, 2020
There’s a broader point needing consideration by the government: communication with stakeholders. It seems that every day brings news of another comms screw-up. There is a management tool known as a ‘RACI analysis’; this shows who is ‘responsible’, who is ‘accountable’, who needs to be ‘consulted’ and who just needs to be ‘informed’. The government should start using it. And backbench Conservative MPs, like yourself, need to ask themselves who is to blame for it not being used already. I won’t offer an opinion. I’m sure other posters will offer their thoughts.
October 2, 2020
I would have thought MPs claiming to be ‘business people by background’ would have encountered ‘RACI analysis’ on their way to Westminster.
October 2, 2020
Yup . RACI is an excellent tool to get to the heart of an issueâs ownership. Not simply the chart that is produced, but the conversations that get you there. We used to use it a lot in my business .
October 2, 2020
I love the RACI System and use it a lot in my work and thinking. I am sure State workers use it but, their first priority is to cover their real end first. From my experience of them, they seek to either offload or mitigate both responsibility and accountability. It is yet another reason why I hate Supranational bodies. QUANGO’s and NGO’s. They are just firewalls put in place solely to protect MP’s and Civil Serpents.
October 2, 2020
Yes, for sure.
1. Cover backside
2. Build empire
October 2, 2020
+1 and their objective is the inverse of RACI.
October 2, 2020
I agree MarkB passing the buck is the order of the day. It is caused because when an error is made people call for them to be sacked immediately so covering your own ass is a priority.
This SNP MP everyone saying she should resign, what other jobs would someone resign for breaching covid isolation rules and putting other people at risk? If a Doctor does it should they be struck off? By all means she should be disciplined, she has a fine to pay, she has put other people at risk of catching COVID that she was on a train with – which is unacceptable as they may not be on full sick pay like she will be during isolation, does the punishment fit the rule break. It is incredible that she did this what was so important to go to London for when she thought she had the virus and she must have felt ill to get a test? BUT!! Is it acceptable now for bosses to ask workers you’ve been told were seen partying on their Social Media page to resign? If we discover someone has had a covid19 test + and not revealed is it acceptable to dismiss them gross misconduct.
October 3, 2020
Well she is lucky to have a job, not because of her indiscretion but, because an SNP MP in parliament should not exist.
October 2, 2020
Here are my thoughts, Agricola. In HMG, no-one is responsible and no-one is accountable. The public don’t need to be consulted, but news editors need to be informed (of what the plan is). OK?
October 2, 2020
Conservative MP Philip Davies has criticised the governmentâs ânanny state socialistâ coronavirus response, after the House of Commons had voted to extend the emergency powers which gives the prime minister autonomy to pass legislation without requiring parliamentary scrutiny
Breitbart Europe
October 2, 2020
Kathy Gyngell [Editor of The Conservative Woman] was not impressed either:
‘.YESTERDAY MPs flunked their opportunity to ditch the dictatorial Coronavirus Act…This is what the cowardly bunch of jobsworth MPs in Parliament have allowed.
Sir Graham Brady achieved little. No amendment even. A sort of a promise of a vote or a scrutiny opportunity for MPs before any future national measures are brought in. Are not MPs bothered that what should be their fundamental parliamentary right needed to be written in, in this limited way or that they need to extract such a promise?
Are they not worried too, apart from the little matter of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, that they will have no say over the many local lockdowns which have affected many millions of people that trigger-happy Hancock keeps imposing and no doubt will continue to? …’
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/our-mps-have-no-conscience-so-we-must-supply-one/
October 2, 2020
Parliament needs more control over lock downs
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8796351/Fiasco-specially-chartered-plane-flies-just-ONE-failed-asylum-seeker-UK.html
Iâm sick to death of reading stories like this nearly every week, when is your government going to take the bull by the horns and say stuff the illegals rights and concentrate on our rights to be protected and get rid of the illegals straight away , not doing something constructive is going to be a deal breaker at the next General Election
October 2, 2020
Anyone here illegally should be removed – A DNA test will show where they came from and can be repatriated there. or we can fund a camp with minimal living conditions in Africa to where they are all sent. As an illegal they should have no rights to be processed or considered there should be no reward for law breaking (we have to abide by these over reacting Covid rules)
This simple change to “refugee and asylum” international law will stop all trafficking unless the traffickers can provide papers as it won’t be worth the investment.
October 2, 2020
People here illegally are removed. Seeking asylum is not illegal.
A far better solution would be to charter a plane to Ascension Island and fill it with all the right wing nutters who are obsessed with dinghies.
Problem solved.
October 2, 2020
Asylum should be the first safe country to your own.
These are economic migrants gaming the immigration rules.
Exploited by ruthless criminals who create modern slavery for these people.
October 2, 2020
Your bigotry and arrogance is far more right wing than many here.
October 2, 2020
Nobody can legally seek asylum in the U.K. they have passed through a safe country. Ergo all asylum seekers In the U.K. are Illegal law-breakers and must be summarily removed no matter how long they have managed to remain here.
October 2, 2020
The sad thing is Andy that you cannot see that the joke is on you. As you keep reminding us, most of us won’t be here for long and you will be left paying for these migrants and their families. On the bright side you will never become one of the pensioners you despise as you will work till you drop.
October 3, 2020
As I keep saying – An illegal immigrants first act upon entering my country is to break the law.
October 2, 2020
+1
October 2, 2020
A Conservative MP says globalist moles in the Foreign Office are coming up with outlandish schemes to deal with the migrants and leaking them to the Press in an attempt to discredit any attempt to deal with the problem. Why are these people not being rooted out and summarily dismissed? Upper class solidarity? Perhaps we should provide asylum application centres in France. The characters in dinghies and lorry trailers can then be instantly turned round as they had an opportunity to exercise their ‘right’ to apply for asylum without illegal entry.
October 2, 2020
A minister who suggests flying asylum seekers to Ascension Island or keeping them on oil rigs in the North Sea does really not need discrediting. There is thinking outside the box and there is being a complete and utter lunatic – and, in this case, the line between the two is obvious.
If you want to build detention centres in France you need the agreement of the French. And you have all spent the last five years being rude to the French so I suspect they will say no.
And there is no such thing as illegal entry for asylum seekers. The law recognises that they can arrive however they like.
October 2, 2020
unless they rowed round the Med from Syria (or whatever) they cannot possibly be asylum seeekers – they crossed several borders.
October 2, 2020
Surely they walked over the Med. these are special people, more worthy than any of us!
October 2, 2020
Worked for Australia.
The evil criminals who exploit these poor people gave up.
October 2, 2020
France don’t bother with detention centres.
They just provide muddy fields.
Why are the migrants trying to escape your beloved EU ?
October 2, 2020
‘The law’ wasn’t too happy about the measures the Australians took, and they just ignored it. And the disapproval of the chattering classes evaporated along with the problem.
October 2, 2020
Lodge the ‘asylum seekers in lorries’ telling them they are being moved to somewhere more appropriate – drive into deepest France – open the back and when emptied – drive off.
October 2, 2020
UK lorries will not be allowed on French roads with a No Deal.
October 2, 2020
is that built, owned, driven or registered?
– just asking?
October 2, 2020
Who says that ‘UK lorries’ have to be used..
October 2, 2020
The government has no intention of protecting the population of this country.
October 2, 2020
It isn’t a crisis but both parties and all the agencies of the State have made sure they’ve extracted the maximum benefit from it by deliberating creating the perception that it is an existential crisis, which it isn’t
We are being lied to. We are being fed bullshit. We are being played. We are being deceived.
This PM is an absolute charlatan and a brigand. His personality before and after his GE victory is telling. An actor of the most vile intent
The British people will pay a heavy price for continually endorsing the Tory-Labour Statist orthodoxy adopted since 1990, which accelerated in 1997 and then exploded in 2010 when the New Socialist Tory party doubled down on their march leftwards borne from pure fear, cowardice and a total capitulation to Marxist influence from Labour’s client State allies
You (the British political and State managerial class) have betrayed, taken and destroyed our freedoms, our values, our culture and our nation
This is not about CV19 restrictions any more but about a nation’s total rebuilding along socialist lines in which racial and gender identity has replaced social class as the new political weapon of social control
I read this blog and then I read Conservative Woman and it becomes clear just how far even libertarians like Mr Redwood have been driven towards the dangerous progressive orthodoxy.
Every Tory MP has self-subjugated to a politics that they despise and why? Personal convenience and political protection. It is a betrayal of this nation and what we are
I hope you are happy and content with being a Marxist lackey
October 2, 2020
+1
Well said!
October 2, 2020
The Prime Minister’s solution to every problem is to spray non existent money at it. The Prime Minister’s solution to every non existent problem is to spray non existent money at it.
October 2, 2020
+1 Dom
Well said.
October 2, 2020
I wouldn’t hold back next time.
This is in line with what Max Hastings said in the Guardian last year:
“I was Boris Johnsonâs boss: he is utterly unfit to be prime minister
Max Hastings
The Tory party is about to foist a tasteless joke upon the British people. He cares for nothing but his own fame and gratification.”
October 2, 2020
The Commons will get used to rising and clapping every word from Boris, just like in China, Russia, N.Korea.
October 2, 2020
+1
But can they really believe the protection will carry on?
âUseful idiotsâ it is said, are the first to be culled post revolution.
October 2, 2020
And would two men at the absolute cutting edge of the terror REALLY risk their lives and those of their family/lover etc etc by travelling, fornicating etc?
And would the father ( who nearly lost his son to the lurgi) of the PM REALLY go into a shop without a mask?
Unless of course, being close to the throne gives them certain knowledge.
Of total BS!
October 2, 2020
Everhopeful – I thought that too. Jeremy Corbyn casually at his age breaching indoor lockdown rules that are set up to mainly protect his age group! Just bizarre unless he knows something we don’t know. Dom Cummings just travelling with his entire family after his boss got ‘diagnosed covid19’, Stephen Kinnock driving from England into Wales during lockdown to visit with his father for his birthday, Boris comes straight out of Hospital and straight into a car with a driver and his pregnant girlfriend. It seems they aren’t too bothered about the virus risks, plus the guy Ferguson doing all the modelling on covid telling us we’re all going to die carrying on with his lover, the SNP jumping on planes and trains hundreds of miles including Blackford from one of the most infectious workplaces having been in close proximity to the PM and others infected in the house and then travelling to the Islands of Skye for goodness sake (immediately going into ‘lockdown’) and Angela Rayner goes home from the house of commons the day before Cummings (who had to close up the bosses office first) straight into lockdown in Ashton – they are ALL a bunch of hypocrites all of them.
October 2, 2020
+1
October 2, 2020
+1
October 2, 2020
+ 1
Saved me the trouble of writing what I wanted to say.
The BBC’s America correspondent this morning was unashamedly gleeful when reporting the Trumps’ CV-19 infections. Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty had clearly been told to stiffen up and put on sombre faces to cover the mistake – the producers no doubt realising that this had been totally inappropriate for a neutral broadcaster.
We need a Trump.
This is going to be a very different country once furlough stops, mass unemployment hits and the tax rises come in.
No shops, no pubs, no cinemas, no gyms. no theatres, no comedy clubs, no live music, no restaurants, no cafes… and on and on…
You’re not allowed to blame the CCP.
Labour were Labour.
The Tories pretended to be Tories. All of the blame lies with them, therefore.
October 2, 2020
Yes, well said.
October 2, 2020
The telling fact is no Conservative MP has had enough of this multiple nonsense and declined the Whip. Julian Lewis is probably the exception as he must have realised his likely exit for acting like a real MP and patriot.
October 2, 2020
You’ve put it far better than I could. I agree with everything you’ve said.
Look at how fast and how much things have changed in just twenty years. Would anyone care to predict what the next ten years, never mind twenty, will look like? I’m dreading our future.
October 2, 2020
We are NOT being deceived.
October 2, 2020
As Solzhenitsyn warned decades ago,the only thing the West “really”disliked about so-called communism (enforced globalism would be a better term)was the fact that it was the Russians and not the Western elite which had implemented it.The disappearance of the USSR after 1991 allowed them to take over the project.
(Not that the Soviet Union was ever really communist or that the West after the 1930s was properly capitalist).
October 3, 2020
It’s a nice sound bite but probably not much more.
However, the fact that Putin’s Russia is still viewed as The Enemy by many in the West – despite it’s now being a libertarian, rentier capitalist country, as advocated by the likes of Farage, flat tax and all – does support strongly some aspects of that claim.
October 3, 2020
Not quite a flat tax anymore they are increasing the tax rate on the higher earners this year to fund covid-related expenses.
The Russians know that if you want to spend you have to tax.The Pink Pravda-The FT-is predicting a Russian collapse because it’s debt to GDPmight rise to-wait for it!-20% this year.Mind you it’s been predicting Russia’ s demise since it was first published in the mid 19th century.
October 2, 2020
Good morning
Firstly. I would like to thank our kind host for this important update, and others in Parliament who have worked on this. I would also like to thank Speaker Hoyle. It is good to see we have a Speaker that knows what he is doing and seems to be a decent man. He may not have allowed the amendment but, the advice to the government, which it was wise to take, has been taken on board.
I know it to be early doors but, I think we have turned a corner and the government sees that those in parliament, and especially our kind host are, as the title of his last missive suggested, are trying to find a way out of the mess it has got both it, and ourselves, in.
Parliament now needs to recognise this and start to reassert its authority. It needs to question both the government and, more importantly, those who are giving it advice. The advice I argue is of very poor and dubious quality. The MSM are not doing their job of scrutinising them and seeking alternative views. They are dealing in propaganda and are manufacturing a crisis all in order to sell copy. They are clearly having a good pandemic đ Only Parliament can save us now. They need to turn the spotlight on the advisors and start to question their advice and hold them to account. Only then we will see a change.
October 2, 2020
Yes, I have been asking for months, ‘where are our MP’s’?
October 2, 2020
âWorking from homeâ on their 100% salaries playing with their new iPads and iPhones they bought with their ÂŁ10,000 Covid bonuses. No income reductions or worries about losing their jobs for them.
October 2, 2020
Agree with your comments – people are hurting out there
October 2, 2020
dinner party song I’d like to dedicate this song to Jeremy Corbyn
Jimi Hendrix – If 6 Was 9
October 2, 2020
while Boris’ should be ‘Purple Haze’.
October 2, 2020
Fred H
Dazed and confused, surely ?
October 3, 2020
âYou Kent always get what you wentâ
(thanks to The3Witches).
October 2, 2020
you hum it, I’ll sing it.
October 2, 2020
Totally agree. The facts are all out there, use them. Far more people are dying from other causes and it is set to get much worse. This pandemic has divided the nation where on one side you have the people enjoying the lockdown because they can work from home and the other side where people are losing their businesses and jobs. It’s becoming like Germany in the 1930s where the Government is asking people to snitch on their neighbours. What a terrible country we are becoming.
October 2, 2020
Sir Desmond Swayne speaking on Talk Radio:
‘… the real villain is the 1984 Public Healt Act … but now and again politics is about gestures … we’ve had enough…’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCXsA32CotQ
October 2, 2020
Agree
October 2, 2020
The Prime Ministerâs record sounds like heâs trying to turn a bent plastic vase back into All Shook Up at 78.
October 2, 2020
Yup!
Great analogy.
He talks scribble.
October 2, 2020
Thank you for clearing up the confusion of the different bills etc.
I notice the Major of Middlesborough has refused to comply with the rules. Good! The government really needs to be held to account in their over-the-top âguidelines â and punishments.
October 2, 2020
I think itâs too late for MPs to convince the public they were doing their job. MPs have simply rolled over when Boris implemented his authoritarianism.
What I have learnt from Covid is that MPs are all pretty much useless at doing their job of holding the executive to account.. MPs of all parties have given up moral authority. The only thing keeping their jobs as the next election is the lack of an alternative.
October 2, 2020
Lack of an alternative is how things have been for as long as I can remember.
Competent people who have led successful businesses will be very reluctant to leave their successful business to go into politics, even though that experience would be good credentials. Instead, we get PPE types with no evidence of managerial competence.
October 2, 2020
In his mid twenties Matt Hancock was political advisor to George Osborne.
October 2, 2020
that explains almost everything!
October 2, 2020
Well, SirPV that explains a lot, he was also a remainer.
October 2, 2020
+1
October 2, 2020
Javelin, Perhaps the ONLY alternative is going to be Nigel ?
October 2, 2020
I’m starting to feel the same way
October 2, 2020
đđ oh hell! No alternative then! Iâve known him decades. You will all be devastated When you know the truth. Paper tiger who learned the lines…
October 2, 2020
but a paper tiger who growls pretty convincingly.
October 2, 2020
My budgie can growl pretty convincingly!
October 2, 2020
The ONLY alternative is definitely Nigel but FPTP, the system the two main parties, Red Labour and Blue Labour have stitched up between them prevents it happening.
October 2, 2020
+1 and +1 and more.
October 2, 2020
Yes our liberties need to be guarded, but our freedoms should not impinge on others freedom. In this case we must accept that we do not have a carte blanche freedom to infect others,some more vulnerable than ourselves. It is a delicate balancing act.
October 2, 2020
Seconded. Scratch the skin of someone banging on about ‘freedom at all costs’, in the midst of a pandemic, and you’ll find a sociopath.
October 2, 2020
But we are no longer in the midst of a pandemic, that was April and May.
October 2, 2020
That’s right, Agricola, and so we stay home as we have always done, if we have an infection. That’s how you and I have been able to lives our lives and earn our livelihoods. Now let’s other people do that too.
October 2, 2020
NO. Let it rip. It’s Nature’s way. Canute and the sea. Just take sensible precautions just as our forebears have taught us; and do the best to protect the old and vulnerable (just as you would with many other diseases that are equally, or more, life-threatening). Carry on as normal. Stiff upper lip. No cowering behind the sofa.
October 2, 2020
Same old, same old. Deja vu.
Nothing new on the two main topics – the covid issue and Brexit. Repetition and predictability in many of the comments now.
Open discussion on covid is clamped down on. The authorities foolishly believe a standard, authorised version of what is happening can be rammed down peopleâs throats.
At least the moment of truth on Brexit is not far off now.
October 2, 2020
Nobody I know listens to any of the clowns in government anyway.
Rules of this, rules of that. Even the prime minister doesnât know what the rules are – and I think most of us are long past the point of caring. Politicians are talking at us – and we are not listening.
I set the rules for my life. Not some out of touch toff in the Westminster talking shop who the majority of us didnât vote for anyway.
October 2, 2020
I think the people you know would steer clear of talking politics, or even common sense with you! They’d all deny any knowledge so as not to get drawn into your idiotic views.
October 2, 2020
You may think you set the rules for your life. Of course, you donât. You canât have a meal out and stay later than 10 pm. You canât go into a shop without a mask. You will pay whatever taxes are raised to pay for this nonsense. You do as you are told, the same as the rest of us tossers.
October 2, 2020
Not for the first time a +1 from me, Andy.
Now you’ve got me worried !
October 2, 2020
Something is out of sync
I’m also getting worried
October 2, 2020
Is that you Jeremy?
October 2, 2020
Well, Andy, everyone I know listens to the government lockdown advice and follows the rules. That is why they want care taking over blanket decisions to lockdown vast areas rather than focusing in on the problems. It’s not just central government though, the Manchester mayor is putting in his two penneth, the Liverpool mayor was crying out for a lockdown a couple of days ago, last night on the news he was moaning about the lockdown he asked for – these political shenanigans are irresponsible.
October 2, 2020
Nobody I know listens to the Govt Covid advice. But we all have to say we do to avoid being fined.
October 2, 2020
He wasn’t moaning. He was saying that the government have not yet said what financial support they will provide to offset the economic damage caused by the lockdown. He and other mayors in the metropolitan area wrote to the government saying: âThese new restrictions mean that we will also need an immediate substantial additional package of economic support from the Government urgently and, so far, it is not clear that this is being provided.” (The Guide, Liverpool)
They are trying to protect people’s livelihoods in their city. I wouldn’t call that political shenanigans.
October 2, 2020
Why ask for the lockdown then Phillip before knowing. Where is all the money going to come from, will it result in higher Council tax in Liverpool are the Mayors in agreement with that or do they just want future generations to pick up the tab. Iâve seen Liverpool Street parties and big groups meeting up, these Mayors arenât controlling their own Cities or the people theyâre supposed to represent and care for.
At the end of the day they are allowing the infections to increase then shouted foul. They could have stopped these big gatherings and parties and reminded the people of Liverpool the consequences of their actions, they even have their own tv channel to do this on.
Blackpool recently, Lancashire and Manchester on lockdown but the BBC local news were saying Blackpool didnât have a curfew, then they cried foul because everyone went to Blackpool.
Birmingham Mail reported 1 Oct. over 200 people caught coming out of one indoor shisha bar following a tip off about an illegal rave.
Why is Central Government meant to sort all this out and just keep paying up for Cities that are out of control and breaking rules? These Mayors have to take some of the responsibility of their positions, along with all the Police Commissioners etc.
October 2, 2020
+1
Worse even than Theresa Mayâs administration, both heralded by the similarly useless Cameron and his claque.
October 2, 2020
Andy. What a rebel you sound. I bet you even take your mask off even when you havenât quite left Waitrose.
October 2, 2020
Waitrose is too upmarket for him.
October 2, 2020
I like it – you come across a different sort of obesity there.
October 2, 2020
As has been pointed out to you, the majority, within our electoral system, did vote for the current government. It did not include those under 18, convicted criminals, or those who could not be bothered to vote. Among those who could vote and made the effort ,a majority elected this conservative government. By all means disagree with what they are doing, but please offer viable alternative action that is factually accurate.
October 2, 2020
Sweden
October 2, 2020
Having spent time there I would point out that it is a very different place to the UK. Different in terms of overall population and very different in terms of population density and mix. You are not comparing like with like. You could just as easily have said Guernsey and be equally irrelevant.
October 2, 2020
Andy
“…..who the majority of us didnât vote for anyway.”
Which explains why they won an election.
October 2, 2020
The government still want to bring in a 2 week full lockdown to coincide with the half term, they have been preparing for weeks.
They need to pump up a second spike to justify all this nonsense.
Perhaps it’s time we took responsibility for ourselves and ignored the science.
October 2, 2020
And the numbers of dissatisfied are mounting. Critical mass is easily reached by left wing protesters, maybe the unconvinced of the âsensible centreâ will soon become too great to ignore by the Gauleiters, apparatchiks, and snitchers before Johnson and Hancock can be pushed aside.
October 2, 2020
Computer models such as those of Professor Ferguson, are not science. Epidemiology and the mathematical modellers have taken over from real science.
October 2, 2020
his are rubbish excel written by a novice, rubbish data in, rubbish results out.
October 2, 2020
Hancock only promised you’d get a vote in advance if there was going to be a “national lockdown” which of course he’s in no position to impose on Scotland anyway. So that promise is meaningless. He also said you’d get a vote on measures a few days after they’d already been imposed, and that he reserved the right to impose “emergency” measures without a vote. Plenty of room there for him to do anything he wants. I shouldn’t think he could care less about what the Speaker thinks, what’s the sanction if he ignores him ? Nothing. In summary, a big loss for Brady and his supporters.
October 3, 2020
Roy
If so then there is a total disconnect between parliament and the executive. In the long run I expect parliament to win.
October 2, 2020
No amendment, yet the legislation to extend was passed without the fall back of a Clause 38. Your spin above is well written but the government has no need to take heed of the Speaker’s words.
This Act should have failed forcing the executive back to the drawing board.
Back bench rebellions are impactful, precisely as the executive exists at the pleasure of the back benchers.
October 3, 2020
Your last sentence is correct. Once Johnson realises he could have a full scale rebellion on his hands he will U-Turn. The man is for turning.
October 2, 2020
Trouble is Ian, if everything is closed again for a âcircuit breakâ aka national lockdown…you canât ignore and carry on as normal- nothing would be open!!!
October 2, 2020
Dear Sir John–MP’s at best are going to relay what their consituents want but that is a far cry from what is best to be done and as quickly as possible. I think the Government has enough to grapple with without having to waste time bringing MP’s along. I would wager that most MP’s could not have spelled Epidemiology till they recently decided they had views on the matter.
October 2, 2020
Did the speaker get worried about the legal case someone is trying to bring against the govt.
Undermining the govt. might have given grist to the anti govt. mill maybe?
So no amendment vote.
And MPs believe that the govt. will respect the new agreement?
Same mistake electorate made.
October 2, 2020
It appears to be an uphill struggle – Government do not yet fear a defeat, so parliament must press harder.
The whole point here is to get some sense into what is being imposed — More debate should illuminate bad ideas — Government needs to be aware that they are walking a fine line between confusion and anarchy.
October 2, 2020
Dear Bryan–But there is no line, certainly not a fine one, between confusion and anarchy. Would have thought plenty of room for overlapping confusion AND anarchy. Try and give the Government credit for the close to impossibilty of what they are tasked to do, with often ignorant opinions all over the place. I cannot work out why they don’t just do what Oxford says and stop poncing about. Yes I read Science at Oxford with ‘Arts’ friends writing an essay of mere opinions once a week on the Romantic Poets and other baloney and spending the rest of the time on the river. Wouldn’t have thought the Romantic Poets change much over the years. With a ‘ university’ behind every lamppost nowadays, thanks to Major, differences of opinion bound to abound.
October 2, 2020
I’m most concerned about the anarchy side of this line
Already we are hearing about the ‘need’ to impose health passports to control exactly what we can do and where we can go…. Now that would be anarchy
October 3, 2020
Great post. Fully agree !
October 2, 2020
The UK is a Free Sovereign Democracy – pull the other one.
Any Laws, rules and regulations that do not have consent of the People are those provided by Despot Dictators. Did we vote to live in North Korea?
In a Democracy it is simples, ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’ sic Gettysburg. Any deviation from that simple idea and you don’t have Democracy.
The HoC persistently demonstrates it is an irrelevance, so why are we the people paying their wages?
October 2, 2020
We keep seeing pictures of well known people and others not complying yet never end up being fined. Maybe you could tell us why and presumably that applies to all of us so whatâs the purpose of these penalties.
HMG crying wolf yet again?
October 3, 2020
These people are all doing us a favour. As more and more people realise that this is a farce they will all start to push against the machine. When MP’s get wind that the people are not pleased with them they will pressure the government to change. If it does not, expect a rebellion and possibly threats to a change of leadership.
October 2, 2020
I see lots of people around riding e-scooters. These are brilliant devices which have revolutionised city centre transportation in some European cities.
Here they are banned. The old grey suited people in Westminster – who still think it is the 1950s – wonât legislate to legalise them.
So people using this wonderful new mode of transport are breaking the law. Because the law is an ass.
Yes there are risks from e-scooting – but there are risks with everything in life – and people riding them should be able to take that risk for themselves.
They should I also be legalised to ride SAFELY on pavements. As should bicycles. It is silly that a young teenager riding slowly and sensibly on a pavement next to a busy road is technically breaking the law while a geriatric hurtling along on an out of control mobility scooter isnât. Pavements are for all of us to use sensibly.
October 2, 2020
Dangerous.
They can silently travel at a speed of 15mph through pedestrian areas.
I’ve seen in the city by me these scooters hitting pedestrians and riding off.
Ordinary bikes aren’t allowed on pavements.
October 2, 2020
‘Ordinary bikes arenât allowed on pavements.’
really? Its an every day occurence around Wokingham district.
October 2, 2020
No problems with your ‘slow and sensible’ teenager. A lot cycle recklessly however, and have no bell or lights, apparently expecting pedestrians to jump into the road. Setting aside your usual hatred of the elderly, it is true that some mobility scooters have an excessive top speed. Another menace is motorists who park to block most or all of the footpath.
October 2, 2020
I am puzzled how laws are effected by way of Statutory Instruments and why so many laws come into force without debate by the use of the SI. This has been particularly evident with EU laws (regulations, directives) which have been imposed on the UK over the years. Undemocratic.
October 2, 2020
That’s all very nice, if we assume for the sake of argument the government has any intention of allowing meaningful votes.
But it doesn’t deal with the fundamental problem, which is the government’s stated policy of ever greater East-German style authoritarianism until the (highly unlikely) development of a presumably compulsory vaccine.
There is no clinically significant second wave. Full stop. We need a prime minister who is able to read a graph, and a secretary of state for health who has not gone stark raving mad. Until then, any number of rubber stamp votes won’t save us from the economic and societal catastrophe they are creating.
October 2, 2020
Fully agree.
October 2, 2020
Sadly, you are all collectively delusional, you have destroyed our ancient liberties based mainly on a total hoax and will all be unemployed and unemployable within 18 months.
October 3, 2020
The vanity and hubris of the PM, plus a craven Left Wing media have brought us to this place. They are desperate for a face saving way out that will not destroy their party and their jobs. A vaccine is their only hope. Not to save us, but them !
October 2, 2020
I have a feeling there are too many woke MPs who will vote for anything that takes away freedom. The last thing any of them want is for people to be free to act and speak as they wish. This is all an extension of the political correctness which has been growing exponentially for some decades. How long before it becomes illegal to query âman madeâ climate change or âlockdownsâ or refer to the British Empire etc.
I often wonder quite how we got to where we are and why we are all so acquiescent.
October 2, 2020
the bulldog spirit has transformed into baby lamb bleating.
October 3, 2020
My new MP belongs to the Conservative Party. I checked his record and the man has never once worked in the Private Sector. Worked for the NHS, Local Council and as a SpAd. Never owned a business. Never been made redundant. Does not have a family. A complete Tory Drone.
October 2, 2020
Politics is finished world wide. I think the Germans will be the first to regain control.
October 2, 2020
…in the âtraditionalâ way?
October 3, 2020
Not this time. There is no Rommel, and even if there were, even he could not lead the German Army to victory armed with nothing but broomsticks.
đ
October 2, 2020
Indeed.
Prof Whitty didn’t only omit to provide the deaths caused by CV-19 lockdown and measures (two friends and colleagues of mine so far – I know no-one who has died of CV-19)
He didn’t provide the graph which shows the destruction of Western democracy and the handing of power to China and Russia.
Totalitarian states can force curfew at gunpoint – the downside is that their populations live in poverty and under strict control and misery the rest of the time.
In the West we have (had) freedoms and luxuries but had to be prepared to risk our lives once in a while to have them. This was one of those occasions and we failed.
October 2, 2020
It always has and will always be the first that counts – the first to ack that the virus is just a virus and get the country back to work
October 2, 2020
This seems to be a feel good operation amongst M.P.s. The belief that there can be a serious and fruit bearing debate with Hancock, Sunak and some of the P.M.âs advisers remaining in position is misplaced. One can already write chapters critiquing the selective evidence used, the lack of transparency, the options not taken, the lack of any serious policy balance (and any serious calculus thereof). One can effortlessly find errors and holes in what has been said/unsaid and done/not done. To think that a little show of debate now without dumping these people can make more than a change at the margins, I am honestly sorry and sad to say, is delusional.
October 2, 2020
Several contributors here could go through some technical areas, but two minor examples of the past few days exemplify the problem.
(i) Mr Hancockâs infantile response, âItâs perfectly reasonable to make the argument that we should just let the virus rip, I just think that the hundreds of thousands of deaths that would follow is not a price that anyone should pay.â
There is zero indication here of serious thought or even the ability to think. When people talk about a Sweden style policy with stable forms of behaviour and vulnerable protection, they do not talk about letting the virus rip. Hancockâs continuing use of scary numbers of deaths evidences no progress in analysis and understanding, no development or grasp of the balance of costs, whether quantitative or qualitative. Everything about such performance is pathetic dictatorial religion. You cannot usefully debate with this.
(ii) In the recent press conference Professor Vallance commented âlook at other countries you see that cases go up, followed by spread to older people, followed by hospitalizations ⊠ICU and deathsâ. This was presented in way that this is just accepted. This far in, I would have expected an indication of a detailed understanding of each of the Covid September deaths, not such an acceptance of an inevitable pathway. This appalling lack of analysis just looks like a big science view of epidemics, rather than looking at the pragmatic detail of interventions on the tragic pathway from not infected to death. The lessons of averages do matter, but so do the lessons of cases. After so much time, all Professor Vallance can say amounts to â things spread, people die â one can only have zero confidence in the advice the Govt. is receiving, a bit of HoC chit-chat cannot fix this.
October 2, 2020
Yes. Agree.
Hancock, the ‘gimlet-eyed fanatic’ (Lord Sumption quote) must go – and NOW.
Too, Whitty and Vallance given the Order of the Boot.
Heneghan, Gupta, Lee, Levitt, in.
Swedish model.
Johnson apologise, change course, deliver Brexit, and will just about survive the Corona Enquiry.
Sir John to cabinet (Chancellor).
October 2, 2020
Thanks god we’ve left the EU so we can take back control. Little did the Brexiters warn us that they meant that Dominic Cummings (a man who literally holds Parliament in contempt) would have all the control.
October 2, 2020
He doesn’t.
Parliament has the power.
October 2, 2020
âBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heavenâ, Matthew 5:3.
October 3, 2020
Should get a prize for the strangest post ever seen on here.
October 3, 2020
Oh, I don’t know! there have been a few dozen that I’ve noticed.
October 3, 2020
Ohhh I could not have thought you would not get it. âPoor in spiritâ is an expression synonym of âBlessed are the meek, enduring with patience and without resentmentâ. Like Edward2 all satisfied with the way Parliament conducts itself.
Iâm soooo sorry to have to dot the iâs and cross the tâs for you.
October 3, 2020
That’s OK hef.
Glad to keep you busy and all excited.
PS
I didn’t say I was “all happy with the way Parliament conducts itself”
You made that up.
I responded to wab who claimed Mr Cummings had control, by saying he didn’t and that Parliament has the (real) power.
So for someone like you who is obviously very keen on facts and accuracy I think you have been rather poor.
October 4, 2020
I am so happy for you Edward2 that you think you have finally scored a point, or do you not?
October 2, 2020
Listening to some funeral directors, they are expecting a massive increase in male suicides. They were discussing the best ways of handling it, both for the families and themselves.
This is the reality of the situation we find ourselves in.
October 2, 2020
+1 already at 18 a day.
October 2, 2020
Sadly it has been expected for a few months. For a growing number life has become not worth living. Epitaphs should read ‘Covid didn’t kill – Government did’.
October 2, 2020
This government has hollowed out our lives.
It is cruel, disgusting and without parallel.
It would not surprise me if suicide had been factored in.
Not to mention the purposeful withdrawal of healthcare, face masks WHICH ARE DANGEROUS, and the extreme fear instilled in many. All guaranteed to kill.
Which is probably why Boris wants to import 4 million cheap workers to be butchers, bakers and candlestick makers.
October 2, 2020
White males in particular.
Being told that they are stupid and not wanted.
October 2, 2020
Now that the pound has dropped to a new low of 1.08 against the euro I should like to ask JR for any comment seeing he posted the following recently under the heading:
Sterling rises again
By johnredwood | Published: August 30, 2020
All those who think sterling will fall every time there is no progress on a Brexit deal need to think again.
Over the last month of reports of no progress in talks sterling has risen by 3% against the dollar and 2% against the Euro. Over the last year of talks going nowhere sterling is now 10% higher against the dollar and 2% higher against the Euro.
So why no rush by the pro Remain forces to express pleasure, when they are so ready to rush out misleading releases wrongly blaming Brexit every time sterling dips?
==
Any explanation?
October 2, 2020
It isn’t a new low.
93.26p against the Euro was the lowest.
October 2, 2020
It does indeed. But once again we are remined of just how idiotic and self entitled so many MPs are. This with SNP MP Margaret Ferrier. If she had her Covid App on then perhaps 100 people or so on the train may be told to isolate or be fined. Or worse still actually infected.
At best 100 sensible MPs and most of those idiotically voted for the Climate Change Act so that is rather optimistic.
October 2, 2020
That’s a thought does this track and trace app tell people the tracers know are covid + “what are you doing out of your home” and send the cops around?
October 2, 2020
To me, this is all so reminiscent of the Foot & Mouth Disease controls in 2001. I was then at the sharp end, in the field. Extensive powers were mobilized to get control of that most infectious of animal viruses, and farming families and other land-users came to know all about lockdowns!
With that disease, historically, the ‘stamping-out’ policy had always worked, and we knew what we were doing to achieve our former ‘free-from’ status, so essential for international trade and normal healthy food production at home. However, there were nasty features peculiar to that epizootic that tested the old strategy to the limit, occasioning the intervention of statisticians (which in my view, we could have done without!)
Vaccination, as practiced by many less secure parts of the world, had never been the answer, though there was much ‘hue and cry’ for it in 2001, from many who were worried about the cost, and erosion of liberty. Also, there were many conspiracy theories re previous contingency exercises – we too were fatuously accused of a ‘Plandemic’!
Boris’s ‘Defeat the Virus’ instincts are understandable. However, in the case of CV-19, and looking at things as they now stand, the ‘stamping out’ approach is misguided, though an initial ‘Damping Down’ strategy was justifiable. It’s probably counter-intuitive to the Public Health advisers to say ‘just let it run its course, with a few containment measures here and there’, and they, too, have to bear in mind the international implications.
Sadly, it appears the world is going to learn this lesson the hard way, with the most appalling collateral damage. Not that I know anything about it all…
October 2, 2020
Parliament needs to end this farce. The political establishment has already destroyed what little confidence a large part of the population had in it. If the lockdowns continue whilst everyone can see nobody is dying even brainwashed BBC viewers are going to catch on at some point.
October 2, 2020
+1
October 2, 2020
Me also.
October 2, 2020
https://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/frederick-forsyth/1342686/coronavirus-pandemic-boris-johnson-scientists-UK-latest
The 5 steps to tyranny. And we’re nearly there.
October 2, 2020
I reckon weâve arrived.
Passed every exam in obedience.
Globalism….Boris takes it intravenously.
October 2, 2020
101 global dictatorships â get the whole population focused on a single issue; working together for a global solution
October 2, 2020
Ginty
I copied and pasted that Frederick Forsyth article describing the five steps to authoritarianism, to my MP – Paul Scully. Looking around us, Forsyth is correct, we have been guided through the steps with the use of fear…and quite probably Boris too. For months weâve seen adverts, radio etc talking about the new normal, and in the spring time, the changes about to happen to the country…the mis-represented figures, dodgy data and huge exaggerations of deaths which had evolved into âcasesâ .
MPs really do need to wake up and stop this tyranny in its tracks! Lockdown Sceptics et al have been questioning the science etc for months and months, but along with industry and labs offering help, have been ignored. You have to ask yourself why?
October 2, 2020
“We are flying in fog – Tapping the instruments as they are inaccurate or misleading”.
This was how many organisations operated before the digital age. And it seems the Civil Service and many other Public Services still operate this way from all the recent evidence.
Time for an overdue streamlining of Government Systems with more emphasis on the technical training, fail-saving, timely and future-proofing and less on PPE, woke, green etc before it is too late. We have world class technology and engineers but their contributions are overlooked for short term expediency. History repeated again and again. Until a crisis occurs it seems nothing is learned despite good intentions as it doesn’t get votes.
October 2, 2020
Why is dictatorship and ruling by decree wrong?
It is terribly inefficient. How can you know what is going on in, say Macclesfield, if you are bunkered in the office in London? Unless you are in real touch with the MP, you cannot be. And that goes for the backbenchers too. Mr Macmillan used to spend time in the tea rooms listening. Does any cabinet minister who has the ear of the PM?
Who has the ear of the PM anyway? Is it Carrie? Is it his hairdresser? Is it the scientists who, quite rightly, restrict themselves to covid matters (not, say, education or money). These people are all experts at their job. But,like the scientists, they are very narrow in their speciality.
When things (inevitably) go wrong, force is employed far too quickly. That leads to anger and hurt. It is no way to get re elected – so elections (eventually) and parliament as well – get bypassed. The EU has been doing this for years. But Brexit has happened.
We did not vote for this did we.
October 2, 2020
Why did all the “rebels” not vote against the Renewal?
October 2, 2020
They appear to believe that the govt. will stick to the âbargain!!
âDonât rock the boat,
And youâll get a vote.â
Yeah!
I have read that the govt. didnât want the âboat rockedâ because some are making court room legal noises regarding the fascist power grab.
And a successful ârebellionâđđ( as if) might undermine the all important Tory Party!
The âBig Catsâ turned out to be kittens.
October 3, 2020
Yes, Simon Dolan (not an MP) is mounting a legal challenge.
October 2, 2020
I know a woman who has the track and trace app because her husband was diagnosed with covid 19 (no symptoms). However, this is worrying I got this message this morning ‘if anyone you know has the track & trace app be very careful for scammers, X has been called 7 times each day for the last 3 days claiming to be from track & trace asking to confirm her personal details but after investigating why she’s being hounded it looks like dodgy numbers calling.’
October 2, 2020
Yes … thatâs the same level of âinsightâ from the Government as shown when introducing the âBounce Back Loan Schemeâ. It has already cost ÂŁ38bn, of which an unknown amount has been going to companies registering with Companies House AFTER the official BBLS announcement on 27 April 2020, and for which banks delivering the money (loans up to ÂŁ50k, repayable over six years, first year interest-free) do not have to carry extra checks apart from reading a two-page application form.
Given the circumstances it might not be used for a round-the-world cruise, but what about a nice Porsche (obviously, instead of a second-rate LR vehicle)?
October 2, 2020
« It has already cost £38bn, of which an unknown amount has been going to companies registering with Companies House AFTER the official BBLS announcement on 27 April 2020, »
Who is it unknown amount if someone has investigated it and found it to be true? Surely there is evidence of this accusation?
October 3, 2020
ÂŁ38bn thatâs roughly 700,000 such loans already distributed, most of them worth ÂŁ50k.
The unknown amount is unknown obviously, but I (quickly) found the 21/05/2020 DT item by Ben Gartside & Tony Diver, and the 01/10/2020 BBC âMinisters were warned of Covid loans fraud riskâ.
October 3, 2020
Fr 02/2020 12:36 Guardian ‘Organised crime in UK exploiting Coronavirus loan scheme’
October 3, 2020
So where is the proof? We all know scammers can operate now surely if this has been investigated by three newspapers theyâll know exactly how many companies registered after that date as this public record, and where did they discover whether loans had been issued to any of these newly formed companies. Itâs not a difficult thing to differentiate between evidence based facts and supposition and opinion? What you have given is supposition and opinion – now the government should be speaking to the banks to check if any loans were provided to Companies registered after the date you provided and ask why and make the banks cover the losses because there were stipulations to the banks for these loans.
October 5, 2020
My level of proof is âinexistentâ inasmuch as I point out to items in newspapers, not something I would have researched myself.
Is your level of proof about the woman in your original post any better? How can I be sure you are not simply gaslighting.
If you want to play stupid, I can do that too and possibly better than you.
October 6, 2020
hefner, if Sir John wants to know who my contact is that has received seven fake track and trace calls I’m willing to ask her to e-mail him although he is not her MP. I did recommend that she contacted her MP to let them know.
Stupid is as stupid does.
These newspapers should be asked to provide the government their evidence so they can track and trace the criminals.
October 2, 2020
The text of the Coronavirus Act 2020 explicitly gives the government the power:-
to close premises
to detain a person thought to be infectious
to detain a child without the express consent of the person responsible for the child
to prohibit or otherwise restrict events or gatherings
to order a person to quarantine
to order a person to wear ‘protective clothing’
to close educational institutions and childcare premises
etc etc etc
If it had been stopped, this would surely have been an important step back to democracy.
October 2, 2020
o close premises
to detain a person thought to be infectious
to detain a child without the express consent of the person responsible for the child
to prohibit or otherwise restrict events or gatherings
to order a person to quarantine
to order a person to wear âprotective clothingâ
to close educational institutions and childcare premises
etc etc etc
….
and to burn your property
October 2, 2020
When is the government going to review its catastrophically stupid decision to hand the sole responsibility for contact tracing to a private company with no expertise, no relevant infrastructure at local level and no competence and that is predictably failing badly and will be responsible for many unnecesary deaths over the winter months unless immediate action is taken? Will the government point to another country which has gone down this root with any success?
Why is the government still flailing around making it up as it goes along more than six months after Covid became very obviously a serious public health issue? The only way of containing this disease and thus enabling a consistent degree of normality without the epidemic growing exponentially is to be able to control new clusters as they are formed, not after they have been left to clone new clusters of disease.
October 2, 2020
I wonder if the speaker realised that in not allowing the amendment he was supporting anti democratic forces …just like Bercow did by allowing amendments!
October 2, 2020
Agree.
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2020/09/29/coronavirus-powers-and-the-brady-amendment/#comment-1159087
October 2, 2020
+1
October 2, 2020
You are quite right to explain that the 1984 Public Health Act is the source of the Health Secretary’s unique powers and not the Coronavirus Act.
October 2, 2020
PS did the Lord Speaker know what he was doing? Has he mentioned it?
October 2, 2020
Of course he knew. He is taking advice from the constitutional experts.
Pity Mrs T was PM in 1984. That is the Act that must be repealed, obviously.
October 2, 2020
But it is not the 1984 PHA that should be being used in any event. see below
October 2, 2020
As I said recently, the HoC is very good at giving away its sovereignty to Downing Street with too many “Enabling Acts”. Allowing Ministers to rule by Statutory Instruments and other types of delegated legislation such as the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 and several more like it. All designed to keep the HoC from interfering; all voted into existence by the HoC. So they only have themselves to blame.
Mind you, the greatest enabling act of all was voted in on the 23rd of March 1933, when the Enabling Act was passed by the Reichstag 441 votes to 94.
October 2, 2020
I reckon that if I were playing any part in of all this …and obviouslyI am just a no account victim…I would really, really want to distance myself from it.
PDQ.
October 2, 2020
Agree, Acorn – very worrying overtones.
The likes of Tobias Ellwood MP (77th Brigade connections) are already calling for enforced Covid vaccinations using the army. It is becoming clear that for Government policy, vaccination of the entire population is the goal – despite being a completely pointless objective even if you can find a vaccine that works (it is 95% the old with co-morbidities that die from Covid; and vaccines are not much use for respiratory illnesses)
October 2, 2020
162 new diagnostic NHS centres to open over the next five years, a rare piece of good news for people, maybe John could do a blog on this sometime, it sounds better than 40 new hospitals with no staff.
October 2, 2020
Is anyone in the NHS capable of diagnosing anything? I doubt it!
October 2, 2020
Well I hope they will be MRI CT Blood testing etc and not glorified ENT centres with zillions of overpaid novices.
October 2, 2020
The former Labour cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw said your ‘agreement’ is a âmeaningless concession, which excludes the draconian ânon nationalâ measures imposed without local consultation with local communities, and gives the executive a get-out clause on the national measures.â
Not my habit to agree with the likes of Ben Bradshaw, but is he wrong? I don’t think so.
October 2, 2020
Why is the U.K. agreeing that the EU can have access to data on British citizens. We should be able to opt out of GDPR arrangements if we donât want EU spooks reading our personal data.
October 2, 2020
I’ve had casual conversations with quite a few friends and neighbours while out and about in Wokingham these last few days. I was more than surprised to hear how many of them expressed anger and disappointment with the Government’s stream of instructions, as they are normally so mild mannered and polite. A frequent topic was precisely how or when can we be told it’s ok to resume normal life when the coronavirus is now a permanent feature of the world?
Could this be an indicator of a developing national mood? If so, I fear that without relaxation of restrictions we could see unrest on our streets. Maybe the gig of Boris & The Sage needs ending!
October 2, 2020
anybody remember the dire videos of the Siren going off to warn of imminent nuclear attack? Boris, Whitty and Hancock would be perfect in a new version.
October 2, 2020
Yes I confirm that is the vibe on the street in Northumberland too.
We have had enough!
October 2, 2020
Even where it isn’t the mood it will be when tax rises come, unemployment rockets and furlough stops.
October 3, 2020
No ! As others have pointed out, we will have had enough once furlough has ended and mass unemployment begins.
October 2, 2020
I think we need more control over the UK/EU trade negotiations â I can feel a fudge being arranged behind the scenes
October 2, 2020
Worried sick that Boris is getting involved. Surely he needs to self-isolate?
October 2, 2020
Well if anybody can fudge it Boris can
October 2, 2020
MPs must ensure that Parliament acts with firm resolution and controls this government (small g) using the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 Act controlled each 7 days by Parliament. The authority that this is the correct mechanism for Parliamentary Control is that of Lord Sumption.
A new Act to grant the power of RECALL of any MP is also required, given that some 300 didn’t even bother to turn up on a matter of great importance to civil liberties and freedoms.
October 2, 2020
JR: “The government agreed to come to Parliament over these powers”
No it didn’t! Mr Hancock said ‘where possible’, next time he passes another totalitarian measure, he’ll just go to Parliament and say, ‘Oppps!, Sorry it wasn’t possible’.
How is it there were only 354 votes cast in the division: “Coronavirus Act 2020 (Review of Temporary Provisions)”?
Isn’t there supposed to be 650 MPs in the Commons?
October 2, 2020
how many were travelling on public transport dashing home?
October 2, 2020
Maybe we need a referendum like Italy to reduce the number of MPs to 300
October 2, 2020
Off topic
I have just learnt that PM is going to have a ”zoom” conference with EU president which is just about the worst Brexit news this year. I just hope to God that he will be sitting between Foster and Cumnmings and one of them has their hand on the OFF switch.
He should not go near a meeting until the very end and then only to ‘glad-hand’ those snakes in Brussels. He is putting the whole of Brexit at risk
October 2, 2020
George Brooks
We can only wait and see. Jan 1st is the important day.
Of course it’s possible there may be a sneaky sell out with delayed announcement, but even Boris knows pulling that stunt would be the end of the conservative party.
Sit tight my friend
October 2, 2020
+1 he is the most incompetent individual and ill. He canât sort out the CV19 regulations passed yesterday. He MUST not be allowed to mess up Brexit.
October 2, 2020
+1
October 3, 2020
“Mess up brexit???”
That’s like “Endanger the Titanic”, Lynn.
October 3, 2020
GB, how interesting that you do not trust the PM chosen by the electorate but think that some unelected advisors should âprevailâ. Are you getting close to full ripeness for some autocratic government?
October 2, 2020
Trump has shown Covid symptoms – forming the letter O with his mouth every few minutes, turning left and right to nobody there posturing, constantly contradicting himself, using cans of hairspray in the wind, using karate chop hand gestures. He didn’t need a test to confirm it.
October 2, 2020
God Bless and keep POTUS safe!
October 2, 2020
-1
October 2, 2020
Parliament does not truly represent the people either- we need to change our voting system to proportional representation. The HoL consisting of 800 odd needs to be abolished..it’s an old boys club that nobody votes for and represents an outdated medieval time- We need an upper House yes! but the people should have a say. Lastly we need a written constitution that everyone can buy into- am afraid that unless you politicians get real and make the changes necessary to bring us into the modern world then you are wasting your sweetness in the desert air.
October 2, 2020
100% wrong on every point.
October 3, 2020
Lynn I’m staggered you respond like that! Are you really replying to martine? I think it was clear, accurate and the opinion of possibly 80% of the population.
October 3, 2020
Absolutely. We had a referendum on propotional representation, because Nick Clegg insisted. We rejected it.
The HoL needs reform, since Blair trashed its ancient structure and stuffed it with cronies. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, however.
We do have a written constitution. It is not all written in one document. It astonishes me how ignorant people are on this point.
October 3, 2020
Proportional representation, were it is practiced encourages corruption. Back room deals are done at every stage and are based on ego.
We the people don’t get represented as it is a gang leader that chooses who they want from their loyal followers to represent you. ‘Daniel Hannan’ former MEP explained why he wasn’t campaigning to be elected at the European Election. – basically he didn’t have to he was number one on the Conservative list. To get rid of a rotten egg(not Daniel, one of the good guys) with the proportional system means removing a whole party.
Democracy isn’t perfect, first past the post isn’t perfect, but we the people are slightly more in control than other methods. The real problem is the ‘party’ system, it creates gangs and gang leaders and not people to go forward to represent a constituency. One step to move forward would be for the candidates to be selected by the constituency they wish to represent before the constituents get to vote on them. The next step would be that all campaign funding should only be permitted from those on the electoral roll in that constituency.
Always be wary when it is those in Parliament that choose the system, its human instinct to protect what you have.
We have far to many MP’s, the US five times the population and only half the ego. The upper house is a farce it has no legitimacy what so ever, the best they can say they know someone that knows someone and if you scratch my back. How do you vote out a pointless waste of space in the HoL, you don’t, you cant, you have no say. Government by the People for the People(the only form of Democracy) someone is pulling your leg
October 2, 2020
Since as of 19th March 2020 Covid has NO LONGER been a High Consequence Infectious Disease ..how come it requires ANY legislation at all??
October 2, 2020
Is it true that 300 or so MPs failed to turn up for the vote?
Surely not?
October 3, 2020
A quick look at gov.uk âHigh Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID)â is likely to give you the answer, see last paragraph in the grey box:
« Cases of Covid-19 are no longer managed by HCID treatment centres only. All healthcare workers managing possible and confirmed cases should follow the âupdated national infection and prevention (IPC) guidance for Covid-19â, which supersedes all previous IPC guidance for Covid-19 ».
And if you enjoy reading these things, you can have a go at this Updated national IPC (several pdf documents).
That might prevent you from repeating once again your âno longer HCIDâ comment, which simply shows you have not been particularly attentive over these last six months …
October 2, 2020
O/T
I meet yet another pharma supplier who is retiring on lottery amounts out of the NHS crisis today.
Poor old Capt Sir Tom Moore, poor junior doctors who are having to buy extra scrubs because they can’t afford flats with driers in them.
October 2, 2020
Government needs to respond urgently to new data about the pandemic. Therefore, I don’t seeing Parliament having more say over lockdown restrictions as a good thing.
October 2, 2020
People are being so thoughtless. I f you go into a supermarket most obey the 2 metre rule but once they are in they stand and talk in groups where you need to go between them to get the products , they block isles , if you leave space they push through touching everyone as they go , when queuing at the checkout they push up behind you and you cannot distance yourself from them. Why are they all so stupid!
October 2, 2020
Hoping not to be insensitive here, Mr B-Jones, but you’d do well not to listen to the BBC or Mainstream Media, and do some research (Lockdown Sceptics.org is a good place to start) and ask some hard questions about what you’re being told. Ask yourself why there is the same number of influenza deaths as with any other year; and influenza, as with the common cold, are the same/similar to Coronaviruses. If any of these government interventions worked, then, as they work for flu and Covid19 equally, influenza cases and deaths should be much lower – they are not – ergo: government interventions make no difference either to flu or Covid19. You cannot control Nature. Canute and the sea. You are being had over by government and mainstream media that is setting out to terrorise the population. They want you to be afraid. They want you to obey. They now want you to take a vaccine. But there really is very little to fear (apart from those who would instil fear). 12 times as many people are dying of the flu than are currently dying of Covid19. Please do not be afraid of other people. Mix with other people as you would before. Live life as you would normally. I genuinely hope this is of help. Do not be afraid.
October 3, 2020
+1
October 2, 2020
Yup.
Bodies all over the place.
Bring out your dead and crosses on doors.
If this were the real thing (I mean black death) we wouldn’t need fines. Boris’s father would be wearing a mask, Jeremy Corbyn would be obeying the 6 person rule, Neil Fergusson would have left his doxy alone and several MPs and one adviser would not have breached restrictions.
October 3, 2020
Donât forget Matt Hancock patting his colleague on the back in the House of Commons always standing too close to other members of parliament, if he truly thought this was the equivalent of the âblack deathâ he would not do this for fear of rue-infecting his family!
October 2, 2020
I didn’t expect the Government to give any meaningful concession on Parliamentary oversight and they didn’t, but entirely predictably the “rebels” still meekly fell into line and voted through an extension to the Coronavirus Act.
What was very apparent was the tiny number of MPs who showed any concern whatsoever about the destruction of our Civil Liberties ….. from all sides of the House.
As Steve Baker said – this is how freedom dies.
October 2, 2020
And yet people continue to vote for these moral degenerates and therefore continue to approve of the authoritarian State apparatus that’s been built up by both scum parties since 1997
Something will snap and the majority population of this nation will suddenly realise the corner they have been herded into by continuing to blindly back the slime that as now infected our politics and taken control of our democracy that once belonged to us
October 2, 2020
In this day of the internet I don’t know why the public cannot have a direct vote on the things that matter to them most. For instance if I can do most of my business and banking without talking to the bank manager or the stockbroker then I don’t know why I cannot do the same from my home when it comes to matters of voting and legislation
October 2, 2020
1) The context effects executive function which in turn effects the decision making.
2) Turning up is some measure of what “things matter to them most”.
October 3, 2020
Next question is: is there always/often/rarely a bijection between the âthings that matter to them mostâ and those that matter to the electorate (âthemâ being the MPs)?
October 2, 2020
A deportation flight took off with only one person on board when 29 asylum seekers were taken off the plane after a succession of legal claims -source the times
one person
October 3, 2020
Enter my country illegally and you go to jail. Simple.
October 2, 2020
I still read this as – future debates depend on the ‘good faith’ of the government. After all the midnight rushing through of unannounced laws, lockdowns based on no science – can it really be trusted to follow the Speaker’s ruling? The gov’t has one line – emergencies justify anything. And so far they’ve got away with it.